1. THE TOWERED HOUSE
To all the lost souls searching for their way home.
It is pitch dark. A winding path of cobblestones climbs the hill, and upon it walk two solitary figures, their steps slow and deliberate.
They move side by side, and though one might think they are close, in truth, they are complete strangers. Fate brought them together only a few hours ago—and will soon separate them again.
One of the figures is noticeably taller than the other. Both wear autumn coats, their hems occasionally lifted by the wind. The heavy silence is broken only by the creak of a lantern and the occasional yawn from the taller figure. The smaller one is filled with unease and a multitude of unanswered questions that have been burning on her tongue since the afternoon, but she has not yet found the courage to speak a single one.
As they walk along the stone wall enclosing the cemetery, the icy wind grows stronger. Bare shrubs bend like the claws of monsters hiding in the dusk, and ancient trees whisper their long-kept secrets into the night. Even the old earth, where bones lie buried, seems to breathe in silence. But the two figures are too weary to take notice of the murmuring shadows. With their eyes fixed ahead, they continue toward the silhouette of a decaying monastery, bathed in the silver glow of the full moon.
Golden leaves fall from the trees, carried by the wind down toward the town below. As they pass silently by darkened houses, behind whose closed doors sleep the unsuspecting, a sudden barking erupts—so loud and wild that both figures startle and quicken their pace.
“Not far now,” says the taller figure with a yawn.
The girl nods. She cannot wait to embrace her mother. She believes they are headed to a hospital where her mother is waiting—surely already healed, ready to go home together. The tall lady is accompanying her, and that is kind of her, because the girl would not have dared to travel alone at such a late hour.
She looks forward to curling up in her own bed. The day has been exhausting. She doesn’t quite understand why she has to drag that heavy suitcase. The lady handed it to her without a word, and the girl, thinking it was filled with clothes for her mother, didn’t question it. Of course—after the dreadful afternoon, when her mother was blown by a strong gust of wind straight under the wheels of passing carriages, she would need fresh clothing... but why so much?
“Here we are,” the lady says, stopping before a massive iron gate.
The gate is enormous, tipped with black spikes resembling arrows. Trees with half-bare branches lean over the entrance, as if trying to hide the place from any curious eyes. Above it all, the round moon shines brightly, as if it had borrowed its light from the monastery to cast it here, to illuminate what is about to unfold.
The woman grasps the handle, but the iron rattles loudly, and the gate refuses to move. A thick, coarse chain is wound around it, the kind that only lightning might break.
“Sit down for a while,” the woman says.
The girl looks around. Seeing no bench, she sits on the suitcase. Only then does she notice the cemetery hidden behind the stone wall, previously veiled by the dark. She rises hesitantly and walks over to a slightly open rusty gate, above which a lantern flickers.
Beyond it, shapes emerge in the darkness—tall trees, statues, a white chapel, and gravestones huddled in shadow. Above it all, the night sky watches, glittering with a thousand burning stars.
“Where did you go…? Come back here at once,” the woman calls out.
The girl returns and sits once more on the luggage. She watches as the woman tugs at the chains like someone possessed, which sets the nearby dogs barking again.
This can’t be right, the girl thinks, and with a flash of childlike logic, realizes that they will never get in this way.
Leaning against the gate, she watches the flickering lantern flame and the swirling leaves, as weariness begins to overtake her. Her eyelids grow heavy.
I hope someone opens the gate soon, she thinks. It’s getting cold, and I want to see my mother.
That is the last thought she has before sleep takes her completely.
